The Basel Institute on Governance has partnered with two non-for-profit organisations in Romania, the Journalism Development Network (JDN) and the Rise Project, to launch a three-year initiative, referred to as the "Mapping and Visualizing Cross-Border Crime Project.”

With funding support from the Swiss–Romanian Cooperation Program, the objective of the project is to enhance the investigative and research skills of journalists, civil society activists and law enforcement in Romania to detect and uncover local and cross-border illicit networks, and to increase the exposure of organised crime structures as well as their modus of operandi. The project was launched at an official opening conference in Bucharest, Romania, on 30 October 2014.

In the course of the next three years, and in the context of this project, experts of the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) will provide their expertise in training in financial investigation and asset recovery, in introducing and applying ICAR’s existing tools that support these investigative processes, including, for example, its Asset Recovery Intelligence System (ARIS), as well as in the production of a practical handbook for tracing illicit funds.

An introductory video with more information about the project and its partners.